Marvellous Marble - Amsterdam City House
Amsterdam is famous for its historical canal houses. These tall, narrow buildings nestle side by side along the city’s canal ring: a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The location of the house alone makes this kitchen something special, but the kitchen designers went one step further by adding several unique details. The kitchen, which forms the entrance to the house, makes a striking impression with its premium materials such as marble and real wood, not to mention an elegant BORA Pure cooktop system.
Photo credit:
Kitchen design: Eginstill, www.eginstill.com
BORA Pure induction cooktop with integrated cooktop extractor
Photos: Patrick van Riemsdijk
There are no curtains, no shutters, no blinds – but in the Netherlands that’s perfectly normal. So, when the apartments and houses are lit up at night, onlookers inevitably get an insight into what’s inside. And this historical house on the Prinsengracht canal is no exception. Anyone who glimpses into the ground floor not only sees a living and dining area, but also an elegant kitchen which forms the entrance to the house.
A contemporary loft feel in a narrow canal house
History provides the answer to the unusual room layout: as is typical of Amsterdam canal houses, the property is very narrow but it makes up for this by stretching deep at the back and spanning several floors. The houses were built this way because in the past the property tax was determined according to the width of the front façade. So, to save taxes, people built houses with narrow fronts. To preserve a contemporary, open-plan living space after renovating the building, the current owner decided to do away with all partitions in the front part of the ground floor, across the entire width of the building. Just a couple of glass panels behind the front door create a kind of transparent vestibule.
Lots of natural stone and wood in the middle
At the heart of this large, open-plan living space lies the kitchen, which coalesces into a homely whole with its various natural materials. The kitchen units are perfectly tailored to the old walls with floor-to-ceiling cabinets, and the front of the walnut shelves is made of viridescent recessed oak. Like the shelves, the drawers and side panels of the kitchen island are also made of dark walnut. The worktops of both elements are made from panels of Port Laurent marble, an exquisite material with a dark base shot through with shimmering golden veins. This stone exudes an incredible dynamic which highlights the uniqueness of the kitchen. The craftsmen from the Eginstill kitchens & interiors studio, who designed and built the kitchen, recommend choosing more resilient types of marble when using it as a worktop, as they are less prone to stains and scratches. Like everything else in the kitchen, the worktops are also made to measure, just like the brass-coloured handles which perfectly match the veins in the marble, and the chopping board made of solid walnut.
Colour harmony coupled with quality
The kitchen appliances and the sink fittings are black to match the dark natural stone. The centre of the kitchen island’s marble worktop features a BORA Pure cooktop, which quietly yet reliably extracts cooking vapours and odours downwards. That way, the cooking odours don’t spread throughout the ground floor. The minimalistic BORA design in black also fits in perfectly with the sophisticated kitchen design. Quality shines through here down to the last detail, just as the planners intended it to.
